Peace deal at UN is clouded by Israeli ambiguity

[spindrifter]

Julian Borger in Jerusalem, Oliver Burkeman in New York and Ewen MacAskill
Saturday August 12, 2006
The Guardian

Israel's cabinet will meet tomorrow to decide whether to accept the UN security council's ceasefire resolution, but until then the government made clear its troops would continue to advance into Lebanon.
In an apparent gambit to win time for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) to make gains on the battlefield, the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, signalled last night that he would recommend acceptance of the peace plan, but would not act on it until tommorrow's meeting.

The delay seemed likely to cause anger on the world stage, and trigger a Hizbullah response that would make imposing a ceasefire even harder. But Israeli officials insisted that the move was justified as Hizbullah rockets continued to fall on northern Israeli towns yesterday.

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Despite the UN agreement, Mr Olmert did not call his forces back and IDF officials were quoted in the Haaretz newspaper as saying the offensive would "continue forward with full power" and that all the units assigned to take part in the invasion force had been deployed to forward positions.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1843127,00.html